A GARRISON priest who has been helping the poor of Peru for over 30 years is set to become Dungannon drug-smuggler Michaella McCollum’s mentor when she begins her volunteer work in Lima. 

Fr Cathal Gallagher, who has been living in the South American country since 1983, is a member of the Columban Fathers Mission and runs the “Si, Da Vida” project which helps AIDS and HIV sufferers where Ms McCollum is hoping to volunteer after her early release from a Peruvian prison.

At her parole hearing earlier this month, the court was told Fr Cathal was keen to have her volunteer at the Mission and that McCollum, who was jailed after being caught trying to smuggle 24lb of cocaine into the country in 2013, was “excited at the prospect.”

“I was contacted by Irish-American Sean Walsh, a bishop in an Eastern rite Christian church, who works with many foreign prisoners in Peru, saying that Michaella McCollum was having a parole hearing and that it would be beneficial to show that she has a work opportunity in Peru,” said Fr Cathal, or Carlos as he’s know to locals. “He told me that she would be staying with him and had expressed interest in working as a volunteer with the Si, Da Vida project.”

Fr Cathal said he had visited Ms McCollum and her friend Melissa Reid, the Scottish woman with whom McCollum was arrested in 2013, at the Virgen de Fatima jail shortly after they were arrested, but had not met with her since her release. He added that he knew a number of clergy had visited her during her incarceration, while her brother had stayed with the Columban Missionaries during a trip to visit his sister. 

Fr Cathal, who is Cllr Brendan Gallagher’s uncle, said that, as a volunteer at the Mission’s Si, Da Vida project, Ms McCollum, who will be one of 150 volunteers, will have to undertake “the stringent training provided and comply with the protocols of the institution.”

He added:  “There’s a saying here in Peru which when translated says ‘a good neighbour is as good as God’. As a Fermanagh man I would like to be a good neighbour to Michaella.”

Former Fermanagh GAA County Board chairman, Peter Carty from Garrison, who knows Fr Cathal, said: “He has spent most, if not all, his mission life in Peru. He works with the underprivileged to such an extant that he puts his life at stake. 

“I think he will be an excellent mentor to Michaella, in dealing with any problem she has. He has a very good understanding of young people, has a good listening ear, and a very good understanding of all aspects of modern life.”